The popularity of golf is well documented in the United States, and its popularity is nearly legendary in other countries, such as Japan. Golfers' skills vary from high-scoring duffers to tournament-winning professionals, yet no golfer ever gets so consistently good that he can't benefit from some constructive training and/or practice. Even the great Bobby Jones usually had an advisor accompanying him on tour to keep his swing proper.
Accordingly, the field of golf teaching and practicing has exploded with a plethora of golf teaching and/or training aids and devices which range from textbooks written by professionals to equipment such as practice clubs.
To facilitate teaching and learning the golf swing, such swing has been divided into several phases: address or set-up is the position which the golfer initially assumes in relation to the ball with the clubhead located behind the ball before hitting a shot; the backswing is the phase of the overall swing in which the club is drawn back into a cocked position; the downswing is the phase of the overall swing in which the club is moved toward and into contact with the ball; and the follow-through is the phase of the overall swing in which the club is moved past and beyond the hitting zone to finish the swing.
It is extremely important to keep the arms, hands and upper body in synch and moving as a unit during the entire swing from set-up to finish. This unitary movement of the hands, arms and body s referred to as "connection" by textbooks, such as "How to Perfect your Golf Swing" by J. Ballard, published by golf Digest/Tennis Inc., in 1981. In particular, at pages 23, 29, 42, 57-58, 60, 77-87 and 119-141 (the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference), this text discusses the importance of maintaining such connection throughout the entire swing. If the unit is disconnected, accuracy, power, distance and consistency will be vitiated, if not entirely lost.
Concomitant to the requirement for connection, the club face must be square to the line of flight at impact or the ball will fly off line.
In a golf swing, as in any other sports stroke, it is critical that the golfer receive and retain an accurate picture in his mind of the basic moves involved in the swing. Any practice move which is repeated by a golfer is going to register in his mind as a form of "muscle memory". Therefore, the golfer, in order to program the correct set-up, backswing, downswing and follow-through, must be able to visually appreciate those moves so that his muscle memory is accurate and repeatable.
Likewise, any error in the practice movement will be repeated in the actual swing. In other words, "practice makes permanent".
Therefore, it is extremely important for any practice device or technique to be designed to promote proper habits, including maintaining connection and ensuring that the club face will be square to the desired line of flight at the moment of impact between that club face and the ball.
While all practice and/or teaching devices, in theory, propound correctness, not all such devices actually, in practical application, provide such correctness.
In particular, the above-discussed connection is not always produced. In fact, devices such as disclosed by S. J. Perkins in U.S. Pat. No. 4,456,257, have been found to actually promote disconnection.
Specifically, referring to FIGS. 1, 3 and 4 of the Perkins patent, it is seen that the guiding light is focused either to the side of the ball at impact (FIG. 1) or in front of the ball at impact (FIGS. 3 and 4). The target is thus disconnected from the clubhead. This target/clubhead disconnection causes the golfer to visually begin the swing and to hit the ball, looking at a light that is not in the proper position. This off-line guide causes the golfer to have a tendency to move the clubface toward a spot to the light thereby actually forcing his hands and arms away from his body. The off-line light of the Perkins device thus actually promotes disconnection in the swing at set-up, impact and follow-through. From a disconnected orientation established in set-up, the backswing has been found to be disconnected and the downswing has been likewise disconnected. Such disconnection has also been found to move the backswing out of the proper plane.
The off-line orientation of the Perkins device has also been found to promote disconnection during the follow-through phase of the swing. The off-line target provided by the Perkins device has been found to actually cause the golfer to swing the club in a manner that moves his hands away from his body, thereby actually promoting a disconnection in his swing.
Still further, because of the off-line orientation of the Perkins device, it has been found that the golfer actually is encouraged to and tends to move his hands and arms in a manner that causes the club face to strike the ball in a non-square orientation with respect to the desired flight path.
Accordingly, there is a need for a golf swing teaching/practice aid which, in practical application, promotes a swing that is connected throughout the entire swing, and further promotes a swing that has the clubhead square to the flight path at impact.
Still further, since practice is so important in establishing a proper golf swing, any device or technique used should encourage as much practice as possible. However, full size golf clubs, such as used in the Perkins device, cannot be used indoors, and thus deprive the golfer of valuable practice time. Still further, such full size devices are inconvenient to store and transport, again, possibly depriving the golfer of valuable practice time.
Accordingly, there is a need for a device that not only promotes a proper golf swing, but which is also amendable to indoor practice and which is easily stored and transported.